The Ivy League race has been tight all season, but it’s about to reach its peak, and we still don’t have a regular season champion. With three teams — Penn, Princeton and Cornell — tied at 5-1 entering Saturday, this weekend would decide a winner.
Princeton did its job on Saturday afternoon, cruising to an 18-11 win over Columbia behind six goals and three assists from Olivia Hompe. The Tigers’ 10 second-half goals allowed them to pull away from the Lions to move to 6-1 in conference.
GOAL@ Pansini from Hompe...Hompe's 9th point of the afternoon matches a career high. 15-10 pic.twitter.com/RDGbc0urK7
— Princeton WLAX (@princetonwlax) April 29, 2017
With its win, and a win by Cornell, both teams will await the results of Penn’s matchup with Yale tomorrow. If Penn wins, Cornell will host the Ivy League tournament. If Penn loses, Princeton will host the tournament.
Princeton jumped out to an early 5-0 lead, with three goals coming from Hompe. Columbia scored four of five goals to help cut the deficit to 8-5 heading into halftime.
Columbia cut the Princeton lead to 8-7 coming out of halftime, but the Tigers scored five straight goals to squander the Lions’ hopes of a comeback.
The Tigers won 21 of 31 draw controls, including five from Madeline Rodriguez.
Cornell Downs Harvard
Kristy Gilbert and Catherine Ellis combined for nine goals to lead No. 11 Cornell to a 13-6 win over Harvard. The win snaps a two-game losing streak for the Big Red, tied with Princeton at 6-1 in the Ivy League.
Gilbert and Ellis helped Cornell jump out to a 6-1 lead less than 10 minutes into the game. Ellis had four of her five goals in the first half, allowing Cornell to take an 8-3 lead on Harvard at halftime.
The Big Red opened the second half with three straight goals to take an eight-goal lead, their biggest of the game. The Crimson put up shots in the second half, but could not mount a comeback.
Florida Blows Out Georgetown
Florida used an 11-goal run that spanned across halftime to break open a tight early game and coast to a 15-3 victory over Georgetown to close its regular season. Madisyn Kittell, Allie Pavinelli and Sydney Pirreca each had hat tricks to lead the Gators to their six straight win.
The teams went back-and-forth through the game’s first few minutes, leading to a 2-2 tie early on. Florida answered with six straight goals to end the half at 8-2, then opened the second half with five more to put the game out of reach.
Florida outshot Georgetown 36-17, picked up 25 ground balls and forced 10 caused turnovers. It will face Temple in the BIG East tournament on May 4.
Stony Brook Cruises Past UMass-Lowell
The trio of Kyle Ohlmiller, Taryn Ohlmiller and Dorrien Van Dyke lit up the scoreboard, leading Stony Brook to a 20-4 win over UMass-Lowell to end its regular season. Taryn Ohlmiller led the way with five goals, and added two assists, while sister Kylie Ohlmiller had three goals and five assists in the win.
UMass-Lowell hung in for a portion of the first half, trailing just 3-2 at the midpoint of the first half. However, Stony Brook broke away toward the end of the half, eventually taking an 11-3 lead at the break behind four goals from Van Dyke.
The Seawolves allowed just one second-half goal to close the game down. They outshot River Hawks 38-14 and won 20 of 26 draw controls.
Albany Clinches America East No. 2 Seed
Albany knew a win would help it avoid top-seeded Stony Brook until the finals of the America East tournament, and it got the job done in a big way, crushing Binghamton 21-10 on Saturday afternoon. Emma Powlin had 11 points on three goals and eight assists and Kenzie Neal scored seven times to lead the Great Danes to the win.
Neal had five goals in the first half, helping Albany pull away from a close game early and take a 13-6 lead at halftime.
The Great Danes scored five of seven goals to kick off the second half, helping them push the lead to 10 goals and leave no chance for a Binghamton comeback. Rebecca Golderman had three goals and an assists for the Bearcats.
Loyola Wins Patriots League Regular Season Title
Hannah Powers had four goals and an assists to power Loyola past Army and clinch the Patriot League regular season title with a 20-10 victory. The Greyhounds led 12-7 at halftime and scored four straight to start the second half, helping put the game out of reach.
Taylor VanThof contribured three goals and 11 draw controls in the Loyola win.
NIKE/US LACROSSE DIVISION I TOP 20
No. 3 Florida 15, Georgetown 3
No. 4 Stony Brook 20, UMass-Lowell 4
No. 7 Princeton 18, Columbia 11
No. 11 Cornell 13, Harvard 6
No. 17 Albany 21, Binghamton 10
No. 6 LIU Post clinched the East Coast Conference title thanks to a Brianna LeCompte game-winning goal that allowed her team to come away with the 12-11 overtime victory over NYIT. Despite trailing by five goals at three different points, NYIT made a comeback and sent the game to overtime, where LeCompte got the game-winner. Ryan McKinney and Alexis Newman had hat tricks to lead the LIU Post effort.
NIKE/US LACROSSE DIVISION II TOP 20
No. 1 Lindenwood 13, Rockhurst 2
No. 2 Le Moyne 17, Franklin Pierce 6
No. 3 Adelphi 19, Saint Anselm 2
No. 6 LIU Post 12, No. 5 NYIT 11 (OT)
No. 10 Limestone 15, Belmont Abbey 7
No. 11 East Stroudsburg 9, No. 18 Indiana (Pa.) 5
No. 14 New Haven 18, Bentley 11
No. 15 West Chester 22, Edinboro 5
No. 20 Colorado Mesa, Westminster (Ut.)
In another chapter of the Salisbury-York rivalry, the second-seeded Gulls shut out the top-seeded Spartans to run away with the 7-2 win, their 17th Capital Athletic Conference title on Saturday afternoon. After a back-and-forth first half which saw Salisbury lead 3-2, it shut down York in the second half and added four more goals to close out a dominant victory. Allison Hynson had two goals, and Kristen Murphy had a goal and two assists, to fuel the title game win.
NIKE/US LACROSSE DIVISION III TOP 20
No. 2 Washington and Lee 22, Randolph 1
No. 3 TCNJ 19, Kean 6
No. 4 Brockport 20, New Paltz 2
No. 5 Gettysburg 13, Washington College 3
No. 19 Salisbury 7, No. 6 York 2
No. 7 Colby 8, No. 15 Wesleyan 7 (OT)
No. 8 Middlebury 8, Amherst 7
No. 9 Cortland 19, Buffalo State 5
No. 10 Hamilton 12, No. 17 Bowdoin 9
No. 11 Ithaca 13, Stevens 9
No. 12 Trinity 19, Tufts 10
No. 16 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 17, Redlands 6
No. 18 Franklin & Marshall 17, No. 20 Muhlenberg 10